


Surprise!

by Vorcha_Girl



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 06:33:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13289073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vorcha_Girl/pseuds/Vorcha_Girl
Summary: Ryder agrees to spend her Christmas holidays with Reyes on Kadara without realising it's summer there and the temperatures are soaring. Eeep! Luckily, Reyes has the perfect Christmas surprise planned to cool them off ... and possibly also heat things up! (Just a fluffy Reyder piece!)





	Surprise!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tlcinbflo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tlcinbflo/gifts), [Cantkeepmyeyesoff (Orban)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orban/gifts), [JulesHawke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JulesHawke/gifts).



_A/N - Happy holidays! I meant to publish this around Christmas time, but got delayed! This is just a sweet little reyder fluff piece featuring Reyes and Sirius - I hope you guys like it! (The art is by Naeviss)_

* * *

 

 

“So, where’s this surprise you have for me?” Sirius asked as she blew a lock of hair out of her face and shifted uncomfortably, sweat trickling in a line between her shoulder blades and down her back.

Reyes grinned, apparently oblivious to her discomfort. “Not far, Bluebird. It’s in there.”

Outside the shuttle, the landscape of Kadara passed below them in a shimmering blur of heat mirages and sun-baked desert. Reyes indicated a crevice in the rocky mountain face ahead of them, which Sirius would have bet her eyeteeth opened up into a cave. It shimmered and danced in the midday heat, and she groaned, shielding her eyes as she peered at it.

The heat in the shuttle made it hard to think, let alone hold a conversation, but she knew one thing; she did not want to go out into the desert with the sun beating down. It was bad enough that Christmas in Kadara Port fell in the summer months and she’d been deprived of her usual white Christmas. But she, damned fool that she was, had agreed to spend her holidays with Reyes in this god forsaken hell hole without realising just how hot it would be.

“You mean … I have to go outside to get it? Out there? In the _heat_!” She turned pleading eyes on him. “Reyes, no! What if I melt?”

He winked at her as he set the shuttle down. “Don’t be silly, you won’t melt. This is a dry heat; you’re far more likely to combust.”

Sirius groaned. “Thanks, but when I die of heat exhaustion you’ll regret making that joke.”

Reyes only laughed and opened the shuttle door, letting in a furnace-like burst of hot air.

 _Christmas on Kadara_ , Sirius though to herself, _had to be comparable to Christmas in hell_.

Things weren’t so bad in Kadara Port or in Ditaeon, where they had working air conditioners and frosty cold drinks, but out here in the Badlands she expected to see Satan himself scooting along with a hoard of fiery demons. It was hot. _HOT_. Horribly, horribly hot. To add insult to injury, Reyes seemed to find her discomfort incredibly amusing, and the more she complained, the more he teased her.

_It wasn’t fair._

Sirius groaned and followed him out into the blazing sunlight, only her love for Reyes and the promise of an unforgetting Christmas surprise spurring her on when the scorching heat beat down. She hurried towards the cave entrance, and sighed happily as she stepped into the shade. The shadowy interior was welcome relief after the unforgivable sun, and she followed Reyes willingly into the cool darkness.

His hand curled around hers and he paused just where the rocky corridor seemed to open up into a cavern, blocking her view of the strangely bright space.

It seemed to be … _glowing_?

“Ready for your surprise?” he asked, his eyes shining with excitement.

Cool air stroked her face, blown from further inside the cave where the temperature was blissfully cool, and she shivered, nodding.

“Any ideas what it might be? Any guesses?” Reyes teased, his handsome face stretching into a smile when she stood on tip toes and tried to see around him to get a glimpse of her surprise. He was too tall through, and his shoulders easily blocked her view.

Sirius grinned. “Well, it has you excited, so you must have worked hard on it. I’ll guess it’s something elaborate. And it’s in a cave, which means you wanted to hide it from people, so it’s something you didn’t want other people to see-“

“Very astute, my love.” He swooped in for a kiss, then moved out of the way. “Merry Christmas and enjoy your surprise.”

Giggling, Sirius turned to face the cavern and froze, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

She’d been wrong. The cavern wasn’t glowing; it was bright white.

“How …? When …?” she turned to gape at Reyes and then turned back to look at cave, which had been filled with fluffy white snow.

Industrial chillers kept the temperature in the cave low, and snow had been piled up everywhere – from a light dusting over what was obviously paths, to deeper snow banks that Sirius had to resist an urge to hurl herself in. She blinked, half-sure that the vision would vanish if she looked away for too long, and then slowly took a step forward. The snow and ice squeaked and crunched under her boot, but when it didn’t disappear she let out a delighted whoop and flung herself forward.

She all but dived onto a pile of glistening snow and squealed as it hit her skin; freezing, wet, but absolutely perfect. Then she and rolled around in it like a small child, delight welling up like an uncorked spring as her breath puffed up in front of her face. It didn’t matter that the snow was uncomfortably cold against her skin, for the moment she was transformed back into a playful girl once more, and her happiness was contagious.

“Reyes, how did you do this?” Sirius pulled her jacket on, then flopped backwards onto the snow, doing her best to make a snow angel. “This is a lot of snow.”

He grinned. “I did consider bringing it in from Voeld, but it was easier to just get a machine to make it.”

“A machine that makes snow?” she sat up and laughed. “Where did you find one of those on Kadara?”

“Well,” Reyes dropped down beside her and casually slung an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s just say that when Vetra says she can get her hands on anything, she means it.”

Sirius snorted and leaned into his embrace, inhaling the smell of leather and aftershave. “I should have guessed she was involved in this.”

“And that’s not all.” Reyes gave her a quick squeeze and then sprung to his feet in a lithe movement. He extended a lean hand down to Sirius and smiled with a flash of teeth. “Come on, there’s more.”

“More?” Her eyes went wide as he pulled her up.

He nodded and led her deeper into the icy cave. “Of course! No Christmas wonderland is complete without-“

“Food!” Sirius gasped with pleasure as she saw the picnic spread out, and she almost swooned into Reyes’ arms as she saw the delicious spread of treats he had waiting for them. “Oh my god, have I mentioned lately how much I love you?” She wrapped her arms around him tightly, her eyes flickering gently with a pale biotic light.

“Well, _yes_ ,” he laughed and dropped a light kiss on her lips. “But I can always stand to hear it a little bit more.”

She giggled as he dipped her low to the ground in a parody of a dance more and then lowered her onto the picnic blanket. The goodies; a flask of steaming hot chocolate, plates of iced Christmas cookies, and what looked like fresh berries with cream, were forgotten as he kissed her more soundly, his tongue flicking into her mouth in a stroke of velvet heat.  He broke away to kiss a fevered path along her jawline and down her neck, his lips warm against her skin.

“I can’t believe you did this for me,” Sirius murmured as he nuzzled her neck affectionately. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, holding him close. “This is the best Christmas I’ve had in a long time.”

Reyes sat up slowly and tucked her hair behind her ear, his eyes soft as they wandered over her face. “I’m glad. I wanted to do something special for you, to show you that Kadara isn’t all bad, that it can be a good place.” He winked at her sneakily. “Maybe even one day I’ll convince you to stay here permanently.”

Sirius smiled and leaned forward to kiss him, her breath puffing out like wisps of smoke as she drew away. “Any place is a good place so long as you’re here. As for Kadara, it gets harder and harder to leave each time.”

“Even in the summer?” he asked dubiously.

She grinned and reached for a cookie. “Just promise to build an ice cave each summer for Christmas, and I’ll hang around.”

“Done.” Reyes laughed and bit one half of the cookie from her hand before she could stop him. He grinned at her outraged expression. “Now, dare I ask if you have a present for me, _Bluebird_?”

Sirius waggled her eyebrows and dropped the cookie back onto the plate, then climbed into Reyes lap, pulled off her jacket and began raising her shirt over her head. “A present?” She winked at him. “Oh, I think I have something under here that you’ll like.”

“You’re, uh, not going to get too cold, are you?” he asked in between kisses along her collarbone, rolling his eyes up to look at her. “I’d hate for _my present_ to cause _you_ any distress.”

Laughing, she rolled them over on the picnic blanket and pulled Reyes on top of her. “It’s a bit chilly, but you’ll just have to warm me up.”

“I think I can manage that.”

It turned out to be a very merry Christmas indeed, and, for a day that had started out so blisteringly hot, Sirius took great pleasure in making sure it ended on a steamy note too.

* * *

 

_A/N - Happy Holidays everyone! Thank you for your support in 2017, and I hope you liked this little piece!  R_ _emember that reviews and comments are always loved._


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